Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Dreamin'

I may be dreaming but here’s the deal. I’ll let you in on it. When the dollar started to go up Monday (it has since gone…never mind) my curiosity was peaked and I went online looking at real estate sites here in Brindisi. I came across one particular property that interested me. The funny thing is that it is right across the street from where I am now. So what are the details?
It’s a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment just like the place I’m renting now but a little smaller. I really would like a 2 bedroom 1 bath but this apartment may be easier to resell in the future.

Here’s the big good point. It has a huge terrace. I debated back and forth on weather I would like to live in the country or the city. I’ve decided that in the city would be better but only with a large terrace that gets plenty of sun. I could make it into a little garden. I envision a tranquil garden oasis in the city. This place could be it. Living in the country would be nice too but I love not NEEDING my car to go everywhere. I love my current location where I can walk to work. This place is like my current apartment only with a big terrace.

It’s on the top floor (the 7th floor in this case) of the building. One of the bad things about my current apartment is the street noise. I would hope this place is high enough that the street noises are less of a problem. The building across from it is not very tall so the noise should disperse whereas in my place the noise is kind of channeled or bounced between buildings. Also a majority of this apartment faces Via Appia whereas my apartment faces more the main road Via Bastioni San Giorgio (but it still doesn’t have the address “Via Appia”, which would have been another plus in my book, damn).

Some of the downsides…
The 7th floor, ouch, that’s high, so I need to make sure the elevator works all the time. I would still use the stairs a lot like I do now but if I have luggage or groceries and I need the elevator then it better work. A friend of mine, Andrea lives in the building so I need to ask him about it. The outside of the building looks like crap. It has chipping concrete and the first floor offices have been empty forever. Is this building kept in decent shape or about to collapse? A possible big problem is that there is no mention of a garage. I know there is an underground garage under the building and USUALLY each apartment has one garage but that probably isn’t the case here because it’s not stated in the ads. No garage is really bad because I can’t leave my car on the street and there’s no place to park, legally that is…
The price is pretty good for Brindisi but it’s still really high for me (with the exchange rate). Will the owner raise the price if he hears a rich American is interested in it? How much will I get when I start renting my house again? And when will that be? OF course I’m just dreamin’ so lets say I get the apartment, put a few solar panels on the roof and make a calm, beautiful garden with a hot tub, yeah, hot tub. All with everything still within walking distance....

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does this mean that you are planning on staying in Italy based on your work contract or just personal desire? I would be terrified to have two properties (US and Italy) in this market! Good luck. It does sound wonderful to have a large garden terrace.

Kent and Lori said...

Hot tub!! I'm coming over.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Hey what would life be without dreaming? It's definitely worth looking into at the very least....

Roam2Rome said...

Wuuuau, you've been thinking a lot about this! analyzed all sides, broke it down, and considered all the "ifs".

Awww, don't worry, with the dollar so low, people no longer assume Americans have $ to spare in Europe, so I really don't think they'll raise the price on you :)

I hope you can get it :)

Gil said...

Good luck with your dream. Maybe, you can have an Italian that doesn't live in the building ask some questions of the seller?

Anonymous said...

The Italian that already leaves in the building is perfect too. He could say that he is getting informations on behalf of a friend.

Jeff Gromen said...

SG,
I'm not saying anything until I see how things go at work.

Lori,
Yeah I don't a lot of hot tubs in Italy.

Sognatrice and R2R,
I'll keep looking and thinking as well as dreaming.

Gil,
It's funny but I ran into somebody from the real estate agency in a store recently.

FF,
I really need to talk to my friend. He would know all the truths of living in that building!

Jeff